


Friends with Benefits

by reminiscence



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Black 2 & White 2 | Pokemon Black 2 & White 2 Versions
Genre: Canon Compliant, Drabble, Drabble Collection, Gen, ffn challenge: alphabet prompts challenge, ffn challenge: diversity writing challenge, word count: 999-3000 words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2016-12-10
Packaged: 2018-09-03 06:59:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 2,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8701981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reminiscence/pseuds/reminiscence
Summary: They wouldn't have made it to the end without each other...and learning more about themselves along the way.





	1. aurora

Hugh's a mess when his sister's Purrloin gets stolen. There she is, crying, but he's not reliable at all. He's only shaking and covered in dirt and twigs and scratches and looking like a mad child and his mother who's trying to comfort her only spares him a quick glare.

Thank goodness Rosa's there, because she has more success. Same girl he rough-houses with, studies with, eat lunch with in the school yard – but now she's petting his sister's hair and promising she'll become the toughest trainer out there and get her Purrloin back.

And they can both believe her.


	2. battalion

They're not much of a battalion, Rosa and Hugh. Newbie trainers with two badges and five pokemon between them.

Rosa has three. Hugh two. No repeats, since Rosa's Pidove evolves into a Tranquill after their first battle in the sewers. And there are a lot of battles. They come down chasing Team Plasma grunts but there are wild pokemon and other trainers as well and they storm through it all.

Rosa's pokemon are higher levelled. She also has more. And she's got a Magnemite immune to all the poison thrown around so Hugh uses his heals on her. More efficient.


	3. crevice

Hugh discovers his greatest fault is his narrow-mindedness. They find Team Plasma deserters in Driftveil City and Rosa is friendly enough with them and he can't understand it at all.

It takes him a while before he realises they've been hurt by Team Plasma too, even if they wore that logo once upon a time.

They offer to help immediately. He's the one who refuses them, till the end. Maybe they could've cleared the bad guys out of Unova that much faster with their help.

Rosa has a heart of gold…but maybe there's a nativity he balances as well.


	4. dominion

Team Plasma wants to rule the world, apparently.

And that's what they stole his sister's Purlloin for? He wants to just go and smack that Ghetis across the face, but Rosa cuts in first.

And it's probably a good thing she does, because she's got a cooler head and sends out her Pokemon. And Ghetis is packing a Kyurem that's fused together with Reshiram and there's no way they can handle something like that without their pokemon.

Rosa can't handle that kind of raw power on her own either.

But Hugh's here too and there's nothing they can't handle together.


	5. embalm

Alder's an interesting guy, when they first meet him. A fossil of the old Unova but he seems perfectly at ease with being a relic. He catches new trainers on the road and drags them to school and doesn't let them out until they can recite the basics back to him –

And of course they both already know those basics, but it doesn't hurt to brush up on them one bit.

Granted, they leave him waiting for quite a bit with that Herdier chase, but he's still there with a grin when they're back. And it suits him just fine.


	6. fidelity

When Curtis first invites Rosa fishing, she accepts. He doesn’t show up. The second time, she decides to be more practical and invites Hugh too.

Curtis doesn’t make it, but Rosa and Hugh make an outing of it anyway.

The third time’s a rinse and repeat…except Hugh manages to catch himself a feisty Carvanha that chews up both their fishing rods.

Time number four tells Curtis they haven’t replaced their fishing rods. But she tells Hugh the place anyway, and they visit at their own leisure…because why care about stand-up dates when you can find rare friends instead?


	7. galvanic

They were plenty tough on their own, but for some reason the Team Plasma grunts tended not to recognise them unless they were together.

To be fair though, they were a force to be reckoned with when together, to the point where even the wild pokemon took their sweet time in poking their noses out of the grass for a battle. But they weren't attached at the hip. They didn't need to be. To know they could depend on each other when they needed to was enough, was more than enough.

And, of course, Team Plasma would take the brunt.


	8. hysteria

Hugh’s over the moon when Rosa gets her first pokemon.

Rosa’s happy as well, but she’s not the one who challenges the new trainer to a battle before she’s even gotten to know her pokemon. So Hugh has an unfair advantage going into that battle.

Lucky for Rosa, it’s love at first sight between her and Oshawott. And Rosa is the level-headed one out of the pair.

Hugh’s happy she wins. It proves how reliable she is. He on the other hand needs to work harder because he’s the one planning to march out there and take on Team Plasma.


	9. isoform

There are lots of Purrloin between Aspertia City and Floccesy Town. When Rosa catches one, she’s sure to keep it away from Hugh thereafter.

He knows she has three active pokemon when they make it to the Castelia sewers. But she doesn’t call Purlloin out. Uses the experience share instead and apologises profusely to her darling purple cat both before and after the fact –

But she’s a friend, not a rival and not an enemy and friends don’t rub salt in wounds when they can avoid it.

She’s still sure to spoil Purlloin afterwards, because it’s not Purlloin’s fault either.


	10. jujitsu

Whenever Hugh is using his Bouffalant or Flygon, Rosa is using her Unfezant beside him because she doesn’t have a pokemon that knows levitate or another flyer and Hugh’s gentlemanly enough to not use Earthquake otherwise.

And Hugh tries to use other pokemon when her Unfezant is down for the count for the same reason. Because their pokemon are more than happy to take the damage for themselves if they need to, but attacking a teammate’s out of the question and always will be.

They don’t need to take those sorts of risks, when they have six well-trained pokemon apiece.


	11. karma

All things had a way of coming around.

At first, it was just Hugh and his little sister, so of course he would defend her. And when a new girl showed up one day in town and got the rough and tumble welcome, he stood up for her as well.

Years later, when he was the one who headed out in front because he needed to find his sister’s Purrloin and he needed revenge, then she was the one backing him up.

And he mightn’t have found such a friend if he hadn’t stood up for the stranger that day.


	12. lacerate

Both of them were kind to pokemon, and they couldn’t help but be pissed off with the tales of cruelty that were wrought. But that was before they were trainers themselves, and Hugh had lost Purrloin because those tales had been taken to be the approximation of all trainers.

He hadn’t even been a trainer at the time, but he took extra care to be kind, to the point where Rosa said he spoilt them as much as he spoilt his little sister…and his little sister spoilt him.

And when he asked what she meant, she replied: “town map”.


	13. melody

They have a tendency to get lost in pokemon-infested areas searching for Team Plasma grunts. Usually it's a good thing because Rosa carries her fair share of supplies and Hugh carries even more, and between them they can battle their way through and level up without a worry.

But sometimes even Hugh's supplies run out and then there's a problem, because they don't have many moves that can keep pokemon _away_. Hugh has none at all. Rosa has a couple, but even yawn and fake-out aren't the best for multiple pokemon.

It also lets the Liepard out of the bag.


	14. nihilism

No way they were ever going to give up. Life wasn’t ever going to get so bad that they’d toss out all the hard work they’d put into it. The friends they’d made: human and pokemon. The things they’d done. The ways they’d grown.

Why someone would be willing to toss all of that aside, they’d never know.

And why someone would want to put a stopper on everybody else’s lives… Well, that was just world domination at its worst, and they wouldn’t put up with that. They’d fight together: Rosa and Hugh, their pokemon, and all their friends too.


	15. obituary

There’s a pokemon graveyard in the Kanto region. Sometimes, that’s their only reminder that pokemon don’t live forever.

Sometimes, it’s what makes Hugh think it’s already too late to get his sister’s Purrloin back. That its spirit is in that fabled Tower – but the only way to know for sure would be to go there.

But his sister doesn’t believe it. And Rosa’s pragmatic and says either one’s a possibility. But she’s also a friend and promises to go with him to Kanto if it comes to that –

But only after he’s combed every inch of Unova, and he agrees.


	16. pallidity

Hugh has his goals in Team Plasma and his sister’s Purrloin, but Rosa has a goal as well: to help others. And to do that, she’s heading for the top where she can help everyone in Unova.

And to do that, sometimes she winds up working herself to the bone. So Hugh is sure to check up on her outside of cleaning out Team Plasma. Make sure she takes a break and doesn’t burn herself out. And if she’s lost a gym battle, to cheer her up and grin and help her train and get her ready for the rematch.


	17. quiescence

There’s a sudden lull after Rosa wins her championship match. There won’t be a challenger for a while. And Team Plasma’s gone and Purlloin’s back where it belongs.

It’s not the quiet where they can go to a café and enjoy a cup of tea unfortunately since she’s made herself a bunch of fans (and enemies from disgruntled fans of ex-champion Iris) and it’s kind of hard to be in cognito anymore…

But still, it doesn’t stop them from hanging out at one of their houses or in the Champion’s Temple or even Victory Road when they want to train.

 


	18. reminiscence

Of course, Hugh’s little sister wants to hear all about their adventures. And of course, they have to give her the heavily edited version otherwise she’ll never let either of them out of her sight again… and never go on her own pokemon journey.

But in retrospect, it’s not as bad as it sounds. All the trouble they ran into. All the things they thought they could’ve done without like Purlloin’s kidnapping which kick-started it all… It made them both stronger by the end, and forged lasting bonds…

And maybe all of that was necessary, to get to the top


	19. synopsis

No-one had told Rosa her journey was going to wind up so exciting. Sure, Hugh had always planned to hunt down trouble but her part in that was only to be backup when required (and the rescuer when Hugh went in over his head). Legendary pokemon were never on the agenda.

But, of course, stuff like that didn’t happen to every trainer. Her mother thought it was going to be a nice and fun journey to fill the pokedex. She was part right, anyway. But fighting for her life against a brainwashed Kyurem?

At least she had Hugh for backup.


	20. tranquility

Hugh knows he can be hot-tempered – but never with the people or pokemon he cares about. So the Team Plasma goons have no case against him, and he doesn’t have to worry about ever making his little sister cry because that’ll never happen.

And if he’s in the middle of an argument with Rosa, it’s usually to one of their benefits. Like Rosa’s lost a gym battle and needs a bit of a hot-blooded pep-talk. Or he’s jumped into a fight with someone else and it turns out they’re just snotty little kids and not Team Plasma goons after all.


	21. underhand

On their journey, they learn a lot more about Team Plasma than they would’ve cared to. The current Team Plasma, as well as the old. The ones who’d preach about freedom and abuse and all that jazz and brainwash starting trainers who hadn’t yet found their groove into giving up their pokemon and their licenses.

How many people had had their dreams squashed by those fancy words? It made Hugh’s blood boil, and it made ice flow through Rosa’s veins. Probably why he had a Simisear and she had a Beartic, and why they happily made short work of Zinzolin.


	22. valour

Hugh counted himself lucky that Rosa had guts. Who else would follow him when he marched off against Team Plasma, knowing full well he couldn’t handle them by himself?

At least at first. Maybe by the end he could, but they took them down together in less than half the time and if Team Plasma ran with their tail between their legs when it saw them…

There was even a rumour going around that one of them (Rosa specifically, after she became the Champion) owned Victini.

It would’ve been cool if they did, but they never got to meet Victini.


	23. wyvern

Dragons are hard work to raise. And Hugh wasn’t exactly known for his patience – except amongst the people to really knew him.

The first person to find out was Professor Juniper, and she only said she was looking forward to seeing Flygon. Of course, his Trapinch was still just that, but it was a vote of confidence nonetheless.

Next up was Rosa, but that was after a bunch of trainers had laughed their way into quick defeats.

Matches against Rosa took longer though. Always did, since they helped each other grow.

Trapinch had been waiting for that matchup to evolve.


	24. xyloid

Hugh is stubborn. And he knows the odds of finding his sister’s Purrloin are low but he’s still on a quest to find it.

He hasn’t got a clue how he’ll recognise it either after two years, but he’ll do it, somehow. No way is he going to just walk right past – even if there are a lot of Purrloins and their evolved forms wandering around…

Including Rosa’s, and that would have been a fine little twist of fate if it’d been the one, but it wasn’t. It didn’t hiss and scratch at Hugh.

So he had to keep looking.


	25. yearning

After the trip to the Hall of Fame, Rosa and Hugh flounder a little because they’ve both achieved their dreams. Sure, the rest is nice. The attention’s not, sometimes.

Then they hear Professor Juniper is heading out to the Cave of Being and they’ve never been, so they decide to tag along. And after that, it’s a wild chase for the three lake guardians from Sinnoh and they hope they don’t skip the region in the process because that’d be a huge letdown.

But they’re willing to go to Sinnoh if that’s what it takes. They’ve come to love adventure.


	26. zest

When Rosa’s about to pick her first pokemon, Hugh’s about to burst.

And, of course, she takes her sweet time – which is fair enough, because this’ll be a precious partner who’ll stand with her for a long time. But Hugh’s wanted her to get her own pokemon for a while now. It’s why he’s been waiting in Aspertia still instead of hitting the road.

And it’s why he’s kept his own pokemon’s identity a secret, no matter how Rosa has tried to weasel the answer out of him (though she doesn’t beg).

She’ll pick hers, and then he’ll reveal his.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for:
> 
> Diversity Writing Challenge, d4 - drabble collection consisting only of 100 word drabbles  
> The Alphabet Prompts Challenge


End file.
